Anjar

Anjar, also known as Haoush Mousa, is a town of Lebanon located in the Bekaa Valley. The population is 2,400, consisting almost entirely of Armenians. The total area is about twenty square kilometers . In the summer, the population swells to 3,500, as members of the Armenian diaspora return to visit there.HistoryThe town's establishment is normally attributed to the Umayyad caliph al-Walid I at the beginning of the 8th century as a palace-city. However, historian Jere L. Bacharach claims it was al-Walid's son, al-Abbas, who was responsible for Anjar's founding circa 714 CE, citing the Byzantine Greek chronicler Theophanes the Confessor, who recorded that al-Abbas built the town. After being abandoned in later years, Anjar was resettled in 1939 with several thousand Armenian refugees from the Musa Dagh area. Its neighborhoods are named after the six villages of Musa Dagh: Haji Habibli, Kebusiyeh, Vakif, Kheder Bek, Yoghunoluk and Bitias. The Syrian Army chose Anjar as one of its main military bases in the Beqaa Valley and the headquarters of its intelligence services.Religion and educationThe majority of Anjar's Armenians are Armenian Apostolics who belong to the Armenian Apostolic Church and Holy See of Cilicia. Armenian Apostolic Saint Paul Church is the second largest Armenian church in Lebanon.